From the Tip of a Finger

"From the Tip of a Finger."

By: Pastor Jack Schneider

 “By Him all things were created...He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  [Col. 1:16,17, NIV]

You are incredible!

No, this is not some “Pump ‘em up, Pastor!” speech, designed to cure the blues, increase self-esteem and increase Sunday offerings.  Nothing of the sort.  Now, granted, all those things might well happen when you and I consider just how incredible we are by God’s creating hand, but that’s not the agenda.  Honest. 

How incredible are you?  How’s this for starters…  God made you, by His intelligent -- no, His brilliant design in such a way that medical researchers have now learned we can safely and simply transform pinches of human skin into actual, functional, life-saving human blood.  Sure, the everyday production is still on the horizon, but we know we can do it.

So what’s the big deal about that?  Stay with me now; it’s worth it.

First, it means we’ll be able to personalize patient blood production for the first time ever.  The worry of cross-matching and rejection risks will be minimalized; safety will go up. 

Second, it means cancer patients will be able to have “clean” transplant cells without the same genetic problems as their tumor.  This is huge, because this modern medical miracle is “a seminal contribution” to the rapidly evolving field of stem-cell research, said the director of the Canadian Stem Cell Network [and Regenerative Medicine Program].  “That one can play with the fate of a cell and force it sideways into something that it doesn’t at all resemble, and then being able to use it, is tremendously exciting.”

Brothers and sisters, that paragraph is why I said above “it’s worth it.”  The day is coming when no one, even an unbeliever, can credibly claim in the name of science that the destruction of a child is necessary for the harvest of stem cells -- not when we can get what we need from the tip of a finger.

To use Paul’s words to the Colossians further, “My purpose is that [you] may be encouraged in heart and united in love… I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.”

You are incredible, and so is your God, Who made you in His image.

- Pastor Jack